English Thriving, But Is Compassion A Dead Language?

DENIS HORGAN

September 08, 1995|By DENIS HORGAN; Courant Columnist

Too bad the English-only people don't say: ``You folks should speak English because, without it, you'll be behind the old eight-ball forever in this English- language country. And that would be a shame because we really want you to do well here.''

Too bad they don't say: ``Use English because you need it to get ahead and we truly want you to get ahead because that's the kind of people we are and have always been. We want you to be part of us and speaking a common language will help that happen. It's good for you. Welcome.''

But that's not what's being said.

Instead, in plain English, what's being said too often is:

``We have contempt for you. You are dragging us down to your lowly level. You are beneath us because your language is different. America is in danger not because of the people who speak English who hold every important position available, but because of you who speak little English and hold almost no important positions at all. Helping you is some elitist liberal ploy to diminish the rest of us, therefore we'll take it out on you. We will not grant you the time that was granted to our ancestors when they first arrived.''

And so they attack people for speaking the language of their birth; they attack bilingual education as if there were no ``bi'' in the word, as if helping people with their education by making it actually comprehensible is somehow unAmerican.

People who know better and never find this to be a big thing except when groveling for votes believe it makes them appear taller to stand upon those down below -- ``down below'' not because of their status or their behavior and actions, not because of their ambition or dedication to improvement, but because of their language.

A judge in Texas lambastes a woman for speaking Spanish to her child in their own home. He threatens her with legal punishment for committing the unknown crime of speaking Spanish at home. Talk about intrusive big government! But he is hailed as a hero by some narrow spirits who say that others are too slow to learn what they, themselves, received automatically by the accident of their birthplace.

My own grandmother would have earned Judge Samuel C. Kiser's penalty: She never spoke more than a smattering of English at home or anywhere else; she never got the hang of the language. She would be guilty of child abuse under Kiser's thinking for not using the language of the country she risked so much to immigrate to.

Yet in her non-English household she raised a flock of fine children who went on to become homemakers, attorneys, nurses, teachers, mechanics, government officials, fine citizens all. Somehow all this flowered from a garden where the use of English was not commanded. It took a while, but it happened.

Yet my grandmother would be on the opposite side of a would-be law which declares that English is the language of the land, with the presumption that those like her are at least second-rate and unworthy. What an insult. Say what you like about at least one of her English-speaking grandchildren, but keep your contempt off of her. She contributed a lot more to this place than did some who have had English from the cradle.

Of course English is the language of the country. No law could make it less so, no law will make it any more so. All the Spanish-speaking, Italian, Russian or Asian enclaves combined together cannot dent that reality. Give them time and they will join the rest. It's what always happens.

So why all the heat?

Does anyone truly suppose that people who made the conscious decision to live here will forever deny themselves and/or their children the passport to American success, the English language? Where is the evidence that that has ever happened?

Does anyone, even in the English-or-die crowd, actually believe that it violates something intrinsically American to make every effort to ease new residents into the mainstream? Even Sen. Bob Dole notes that accommodating newcomers is an important part of our tradition,something he now assaults in raw pander to the politics of ugly disdain. He isn't new to the scene nor is the ``problem.'' The only thing that's new is the election on the horizon.

Possibly ``scapegoat'' would be among the first English words and concepts that need to be mastered.